The Mad Monkey

Relying more on atmosphere and serpentine plot twists than on button-pushing shock effects, this psychological thriller builds inexorably to a disturbing climax. Goldblum plays an American scriptwriter whose marital difficulties are exacerbated when he gets involved in a European movie project financed by a Paris-based producer (Ceccaldi). The precocious young English director (Fletcher) has only the flimsiest of outlines, a brief quotation from one of Goldblum's favourite books, Peter Pan. Nevertheless, after the writer's initially reluctant agent (Richardson) cuts him a good deal, he starts work with the director on an abstract, almost avant-garde script. Surrounding the project is a compelling web of sexual intrigue, at the centre of which is the director's androgynous 16-year-old sister (Walker), an adolescent femme fatale who catalyses all the participants' selfish desires. As the plot coils ever tighter, handled with smooth assurance by Trueba, sexual fantasy and hallucinatory dream sequences give way to a frighteningly complex psychological reality.